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Charges of cheating and sexual harassment of students spark investigation of the Horizon Science Academy network

Concept teachers at Ohio school board.JPG

Matt Blair, a former teacher at the Horizon Science Academy in Dayton, tells the state school board today about problems he saw at the school. He is joined by three other former teachers of Dayton schools in the Concept charter school network.
(Patrick O'Donnell/The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Education will investigate all Ohio schools in the Concept charter schools network – a network that includes the Horizon science academies in Cleveland – after former teachers told the state school board on Tuesday of possible criminal acts at Dayton locations.

Testimony to the board from four former teachers at Horizon schools in Dayton accused officials at the school of possibly completing state tests for students, of unqualified teachers, of teachers showing videos day after day in class, of women being treated as second-class citizens and of teachers encouraging sexually harassing behavior toward female students.

They told of favoritism toward both teachers and students from Turkey - where the founders of the multi-state charter chain come from.

Teachers also told of an in-class game in which male students would touch the thighs and upper legs of female students, going increasingly higher, and asking the girls if they were nervous.

There was no testimony about any activity at any of the Horizon schools in Northeast Ohio.

Members of the state school board said they were angry at the allegations and called for a full investigation of them.

Board member Mary Rose Oakar of Cleveland said she has visited Horizon schools in Cleveland and never saw, or heard, of any of the problems the former Horizon teachers from Dayton talked about.

But Oakar pushed for the state to investigate all of Concept's Ohio schools so she can be sure that the high test scores of the Horizon schools in Cleveland are legitimate.

"It would be very disturbing to me...that there are ratings for these schools that are very high..if there was cheating going on to get those ratings," Oakar said.

Board members asked the Department of Education to report to them within a week about how the investigation will be done and a timeline for completing it.

The left-leaning ProgressOhio helped organize the panel of four former teachers and also gathered written testimony from others. See written testimony HERE.

Concept management did not directly address the concerns raised by teachers to the state board. It released the following statement through a publicist:

"Like any public charter school, we are accountable to the families we serve. As part of that, we prioritize ensuring a school environment that is safe, professional and one that supports students, faculty and staff. As we have said in the past, our aim is to prepare every one of our students for success. In partnership with parents and the community, we see ourselves as part of the solution to delivering high-quality, STEM-focused education. The achievements of our students speak to that commitment. As we move forward, we continue to maintain the highest standards of excellence for our students, our faculty and ourselves."

FBI agents in Cleveland, along with the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission, recently searched 19 locations, including three in Northern Ohio, regarding Concept Schools, according to interviews and published reports.

As The Plain Dealer reported earlier, Vicki Anderson, an FBI agent in Cleveland, said the search warrants involved "a white-collar matter,'' but she would not specify. The search warrants are sealed.

In addition, the Ohio Auditor Dave Yost is starting a special audit of the testing procedures of all 19 Concept schools in Ohio to see if the schools use proper security for exams and have safeguards in place to prevent tampering.

While he said his audit can find some issues with compliance, he cautioned that his audit won't be able to look at broader complaints about the schools, which are "policy issues" for others to handle.

"You can't get to the bottom of every wrong with an audit," Yost said.

Almost two-thirds of Concept's 30 schools are in Ohio. Most are science and technology-themed schools, including several Horizon science academies in Northeast Ohio.

The federal education department named Horizon Science Academy in Cleveland a Blue Ribbon School in 2009, one of eight Ohio "Needles in a Haystack" - schools that succeed even in difficult urban areas.

In 2010, it was cited by the Thomas Fordham Institute. In 2011, the Ohio Department of Education made it one of 122 "Schools of Promise.'' Teachers and educators from across Concepts School were just in Cleveland in March for the network's annual STEM conference. On May 30, Eric Waldo, executive director of Michelle Obama's Reach Higher initiative, spoke at the school's graduation ceremony.

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